Blog

I initially saw a client in April 2018 who wanted to work with me to uncover root causes for her chronic eczema which was really quite pronounced on her face, her weight, and to reduce the increasing amount of time she was experiencing hives.

I wanted to share this with my community as an example of how taking a broader view and working to connect the dots can help to better optimize health and facilitate the body to come back to a place of balance. It takes time, and commitment though, this has been 18 months of work! 

The poor potato is often marked as being an unhealthy food that is high in starchy carbohydrates and therefore off the menu for those that want to lose weight or follow a lower glycemic load form of diet. However, while potatoes are high in easily digestible starch that can lead to blood sugar spikes, they are also high in resistant starch, especially when cooked and then cooled, and this has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. Not to mention -  great for microbiome diversity. 

Find out the science behind resistant starch, how cooling a potato impacts the glycemic load (sugar load) of eating a potato and the differences between types of potato and how to cook them.

A popular theory of the pathophysiology of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is that it’s caused by bacteria in the colon moving up into the small intestine due to a faulty ileocecal valve (a valve that separates the distal (last) section of the small intestine, the ileum with the colon). A new study on one section of the small intestine, the jejunum, challenges that concept. The study found that the jejunum has its own unique microbiota, much more akin the oral microbiome. As a practitioner that takes a specialist interest in Gut health, this makes a great deal of sense to me, that we consider the oral microbiome far more. 

Read on to find out more about the oral microbiome, and Tips to Keep Your Oral Flora and Good Mouth Bacteria in Balance.

In the words of Debbie Harry…… “The tide is high” and with regards to SIBO the landscape of this condition is most certainly….  moving on, rather than holding on!  There have been a couple of areas that I have delved into recently, and wanted to take some time to explain.

This week's blog features everything from what is SIBO, symptoms, preventing SIBO occurring, followed by what can we do to aid the action of migrating motor complexes (MMC) & misconception of SIBO No 1. Read on to find out more...

CoQ10, short for coenzyme Q10, is a natural, vitamin-like compound that’s not widely known but should be, as it’s vitally important for our health. Produced by your body and found in almost every cell, It’s a major player in the electron transport chain, the process your body uses to create energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) within the mitochondria. It is also an important antioxidant protecting our cells from oxidative damage from free radicals - and thus ageing! 

Read on to find out how free radicals & Oxidative Stress are involved and more reasons why you will want to be more familiar with CoQ10!

There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Big ones include reducing the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Maybe you want to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent depression, or just look better. Here’s another one, which especially applies to those of us (including me) experiencing the middle age conversations “oh you know …. What’s his name…..”  that comes with age: exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills.

Read on about my latest Neuroinflammation studies with The Kharrizzian Institute and the science behind why exercise is good for your brain cells.

Here is a case study close to my heart…. My daughter who is 14 has been unusually tired in the last 6 weeks. Really struggling to get out of bed (not just teenager behaviour) and dropping off in school lessons (double Geography!) A simple blood test shows she is literally bobbing along the bottom of “normal”. So, do you wait for them to drop just out of range? Or read the results in conjunction with the case history.

Read on to find out more details about the case history and how we're using supplements to bridge a nutrient gap.

Part of the confusion about cholesterol and its role in disease is actually caused by dated science and by imprecise terminology. However, in order to understand why a simple high total cholesterol reading is not the underlying cause of heart disease, we have to cover some basics, starting with what is cholesterol!

Cholesterol is not technically a fat. Rather, it’s classified as a sterol, which is a combination of a steroid and alcohol. It’s crucial to understand that you don’t have a cholesterol level in your blood. Cholesterol is fat-soluble, and blood is mostly water, so the two don’t mix! Read more to understand more about Cholesterol including my analogy of imagining your bloodstream is the M25, lipoproteins cars, and cholesterol / fat passengers in the cars.

Compelling and staggering statistics about the projected state of our health as a nation makes for some grim reading... Since 1996 the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has increased from 1.4 million to 2.6 million. By 2025 it is estimated that over four million people will have diabetes and one million, will have a diagnosis of dementia.

So what are we doing wrong? I propose we need to consider that there can be a  number of contributing factors to dis-ease (moving away from ease) and that the “treatment” for “disease” with a single drug, the model of monotherapy is too linear for the explosion of chronic conditions that is crippling our NHS system. A Functional Medicine approach offers a framework that addresses the many possible underlying causes of these conditions, dementia being just one.